“You’ll have to ask Zeke about that,” I said, ruthlessly sacrificing him to the conversation.
“Yeah, no, not happening.” Jos rubbed his eyes. “I’m going to bed.”
“Don’t wake Zeke when you get up for school. He’ll be getting to bed real early in the morning.”
“Iknowthat.” Jos whirled and stomped up the stairs.
Going after him would be worse than not. Especially when he was pissed off. Still, I stood for a while peering up the steps. Had he promised not to tell anyone? He’d said he wasn’t a snitch, but I couldn’t remember for sure.
He came down missing his mom, and I made it worse.Except no, not really. He’d known about me and Zeke for two days already.
Maybe thinking about the two of us could be a distraction. Being mad at me, or grossed out by his brother having a sex life, was probably better than that hollow feeling of missing his mother and thinking, for one glorious, horrible moment, that she wasn’t dead. I remembered all the times that’d happened to me, the swoop and fall of my stomach as I thought I saw Mom in a store, or on a bus, till the lady with red curls turned around and it was never her. An unfamiliar face, a blank stare. The ache, knowing it never would be Mom.
Poor kid.
Maybe when we were back from our roadie, I’d get Sully to hang out with Jos again. “He’s cool” was like an Olympic gold medal, coming from a preteen.
I leaned against the washer, feeling the churning vibrate behind me. The surge of adrenaline at being outed faded, leaving me tired. Whatever happened would happen. Uncle Wayne’sbullshit was probably worse than the risk of Jos shooting off his mouth. Neither one was something I could control. I had a flight to make tomorrow, then two important games to play.
Hockey. I needed to focus on hockey and let the rest of my life go, at least for the duration of this road trip. Still, when I got upstairs, I climbed to Zeke’s room and left a note beside his bed.“Jos knows we’re sleeping together. Not sure what he thinks. He seemed cool with it.”
The temptation was strong to fall into that bed, to doze till Zeke got home so we could talk, maybe touch, or just lie close together before I had to head out in the morning. But Zeke would be exhausted, and he didn’t need to deal with my crap. The note would have to do.
I went back down to my room, avoiding the telltale tread in the staircase. Then I lay awake for hours, my thoughts churning, before I fell asleep at last.
CHAPTER 14
ZEKE
“Evans! Look out!”
I dodged sideways, struggling to hold onto my prisoner. A hulking drunkard lunged from the scrum behind me and his punch just missed my head. A fellow officer grabbed my would-be assailant, yanking him away, but my distraction gave the man I was holding enough leeway to bring an elbow up into my face.
“Fuck!” My head snapped back, pain flaming across my cheek. I didn’t let go, though. With a practiced twist, I got my drunk’s hands behind him and forced him to his knees, despite my throbbing face.Stay professional.I wrestled down my flare of anger and snapped on the cuffs, efficiently, not too tight. Unger would’ve beat the guy’s head in. Zeke Evans wouldn’t.
Around me, the bar fight that had spilled out onto the sidewalk became controlled, a couple of men running, several others cuffed and restrained, one guy out cold on the sidewalk. Another patrol car pulled up, lights flashing. We had the advantage of numbers now.
I read my prisoner his Charter rights, sniffing back the blood that dripped from my nose. As I was finishing, Olivia came up to me. “I’ll run this guy in. You see the paramedics.” She waved at an emergency van parked along the curb, lights flashing. Asecond ambulance wailed away with the out-cold guy in the back.
“I’m fine.”
“Concussion screen. You know the drill. Go on.”
I did know, so I turned away and strode over to the ambulance. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who’d taken a hit. I waited my turn as Chen got gauze wrapped around skinned knuckles and Dougherty had a bite on his forearm rinsed with antiseptic.
“Make sure you see your doc for antibiotics,” the paramedic told him.
“I fucking hate biters.” Dougherty raised a fist for a bump as he passed me, and I followed through, although I wasn’t sure whether he was celebrating or weirdly commiserating.
The paramedic peered at me. “Come on up into the light.”
There was no one waiting behind me, so I climbed into the back. He waved me to sit down. I held still while he pulled on fresh gloves and got out a penlight, then checked my reflexes and felt over my nose, lip, and cheekbone, and checked my teeth.
“Looks like just bruises,” he said. “Your nose is gonna swell and you’ll have a black eye, but nothing seems broken. Tell me your full name.”
“Zeke Damien Evans.”
“Oh, yeah?” He grinned. “I’m Jay Carter.” He turned his arm so I could see a little rainbow heart tattoo just below his elbow. “Don’t worry, you’ll be just as pretty as ever in a couple of weeks. Now, what day of the week is it?”
